Cranberry Punch
by galliechan
Summary: A collection of One Piece one-shots. ten: Nami had this... curiosity and confusion with a dark undertone of can-it-happen-to-us ever since she heard the true story of Pirate King’s death from his first mate.
1. The Revolutionary Surname

Disclaimer: The One Piece manga is the property of its creator, Eiichiro Oda. The One Piece anime is the property of their authorised owners. These stories are created by the author. All original settings, characters, etc. remain the property of the author.

Author's Note: As for the title, it is a cocktail. It has no relation with the stories; I just liked its name and decided to use it for my One Piece fanfic collection.

For the curious ones, the recipe of the cocktail:

Combine first four ingredients. Stir until sugar is dissolved, chill. Then add ginger ale just before serving. Add ice ring to keep punch cold.

Ingredients:  
4 Cranberry juice  
1 1/2 Sugar  
4 Pineapple juice  
1 Almond extract  
2 Ginger ale

I have no idea about the units of the ingredients; this is the way it was in the webpage I found the recipe. I didn't taste it before, I hope it is a nice drink :))

I planned make the first story about Ace but it turned out to be one about Dragon. Well, anyway, I like him as well. I will write that Ace story sooner or later...

Cranberry Punch

A One Piece fanfic collection  
by Galliechan  
© Copyright 2009

The Revolutionary Surname

A knock on the door forcefully snatched him from his thoughts on the map in front of him. With an irritated grunt, he called "Come!"

A young man in a uniform entered, holding a brown package.

"The package you ordered, Dragon-san."

After hearing his name, the man turned to look at the young soldier with narrowed eyes. His intense eyes scanned him up and down before stopping on his face. Did he know this soldier? Ignoring the slight nervous shifting of the soldier, he narrowed his eyes further, searching his mind for this face. The least he should do was to remember his name, and by the way, what was he thinking that he forgot the name of a person who was on a first name basis with him –

"Put it on the table." He said with a stoic voice as he turned back to his map.

Of course that soldier-he-didn't-see-before was on a first name basis with him. Everybody on the headquarters, hell, everybody on the earth was on a first name basis with him. For there to be another option, he must have a second or third name, logically.

Too bad Dragon didn't have any middle names. He has an initial but that really wasn't a name his parents gave him or anything like that so he refused to use it as a name. So that left Dragon with a name and a surname.

Unfortunately, there were only a handful of people that knew his surname. And half of them were related to him.

So, he wasn't sure why he kept on being surprised when people he didn't know at all called him by his name. I mean, it was his decision; his first decision as Dragon the Revolutionary. He wanted to have no relation with Monkey D. Dragon.

Because Money D. Dragon had left a wife on the shore of a small island, waken up to wave him goodbye at that undignified hour of the morning, ignoring the condition her pregnant body had been in, only to smile and wish good luck to her husband she wouldn't see again. She and their unborn-child shouldn't have had any relation to revolutions and wars because his big dreams aside, Dragon wouldn't allow anything to disturb his family's peace, even his future.

Also Monkey D. Dragon had a father part of the organization he was going to declare war upon. His old man was a tough guy and wouldn't allow his son's reputation to affect him but still, all his fists and priority-justice self to one side he was a softie towards his family and it wasn't worth the risk.

In addition, it would be exponentially harder to collect companions if he were to introduce himself as the son of the Marine hero. Not that he wouldn't be able to accomplish if he chose to do it but he preferred to use his energy in more beneficial ways.

Therefore, apart from this first name basis issue, Dragon was quite happy to be known only by his name. Furthermore, it was a cool name. And comparing it with his surname...really...I mean, his parents had given him a good name and a nice initial but the surname was just...you got it. Not cool. Though at this point, Dragon was sure if he were to appear and say his real name was 'donkey', the World Government would declare all the donkeys of the world as outlaws. Anyway, that's not the point right now.

The point was that for the last few months, Dragon had the most disturbing, against-all-his-plans but irrepressible urge of his lifetime.

He wanted to shout out his name. Not like in his room or headquarters, no, he wanted to shout out his name _plus_ surname to the whole world.

He wanted everybody to know that he was the father of Monkey D. Luffy. He wanted every single person on earth – hell, every single living organism on earth – to know that the grinning boy who challenges the world again and again with a great dream and never loses his determination against all the odds and enemies was _his_ boy.

When the messengers saw his bounty poster, instead of telling him how this powerful rookie was the grandson of the marine hero, he wanted to hear that this boy was the son of the revolution leader.

Dragon smirked, pulling his drawer to look at the bounty poster of his son.

For now, he has to bear with the stories of his relation with Garp the Fist, but the day was near where he would shout to the world that Luffy was his son.

Wholeheartedly, he was looking forward to that day.


	2. Are you Kidd ing?

Warning: This one-shot story contains spoilers for the end of Sabaody Archipelago arc and onwards.

Author's Note: First of all, thank you for the reviews. I loved them! Two of you wanted a Garp fiction and I promise I will write one, though I don't have any good ideas right now so you'll have wait a bit longer.

I noticed with all the excitement of Whitebeard and Ace going on, we forgot about the Eleven Supernovas. So, I decided to take a look at what Captain Kidd is doing. Didn't like this one much comparing to the previous Dragon fiction but I like Kidd less than Dragon so I guess it is acceptable.

Hope you enjoy it!

Are you Kidd-ing?

They called it a mechanic island; Kidd called is a mound of unnecessary and useless metal pieces put in together. They even dared to call it the first island of the New World; Kidd didn't dignify that statement with an answer. There was no way he would accept this welded pile of metal scraps as an island. Especially an island of the New World. Really, if this large, floating metal piece didn't have the magnetic area to attract their Log Pose, he wouldn't even glance to its direction.

Unfortunately, it attracted their Log Pose so Kidd and his crew have to stay in this everything-metal place until it adapts to the magnetic area. Captain Kidd sighed deeply and sat on the metal, uncomfortable chair in the bar.

To make things worse, this mechanical and high-tech island was full of peaceful and pacifistic people that cowered the moment they recognized their pirate flag. Really, it was all nice and good to know their reputation increased to such a point but how was they supposed to get stronger if there were nobody to fight with?

On the other hand, their barely-escape at the Sabaody Archipelago might have been enough of a getting-stronger fight for some time. Also this peaceful island was good for his crew to heal and power up but the Captain himself wasn't feeling weak or anything so some fights to pass time would be nice. I mean, look how kind he was, he was content with just having someone to fight with, he had given up on a strong opponent in this island long ago.

Kidd was in a desperate need of some fighting. No no, don't get him wrong, he wasn't some aggressive and violent person who always tries to fight with someone; he was just desperate to get stronger. Since most of the Eleven Supernovas fought in the Sabaody Archipelago, those fights there weren't making Kidd any more powerful than his opponents. He didn't care so much about the others but he saw with his own eyes that Law and Straw Hat were fighting as well.

Actually he didn't care so much about Law as well. He had some weird powers but depending on his bounty, he wasn't so much of a threat to Kidd. The worrisome one and the main opponent of the Captain was the Straw Hat.

In an objective view, rubber body against magnetic powers shouldn't even be comparable, however the way Straw Hat uses his body in battle was effective. So effective that for a moment Kidd actually doubted if the guy's ability wasn't rubber body but something else entirely. Really, his attacks were weird and unexpected but powerful and destructive nonetheless.

Kidd wondered whether the Straw Hat Pirates survived the attack at the Sabaody Archipelago. It would be nice if they did, their Captain was worthy of an opponent. Though if they survived, that meant they had gotten more powerful as well and that left Kidd with no extra strength he gained after he met them.

Really, if fighting on a metal island wouldn't be pointless for him, he would have been fighting for some time right now.

Kidd sighed. How much time did they have to stay on this island? He wondered what kind of an island the Straw Hats were in right now; maybe they had already had some hard fights there and were getting stronger each day. Whenever such thoughts popped into his mind, Kidd assumed that the Straw Hat was in some kind of boring island lacking anybody to fight with as well. Also even if he were to fight with a few opponents, Kidd would easily catch up with him when he managed to get out of this worthless afloat metal. I mean, even by fighting with the most powerful opponents out there, Straw Hat wouldn't be able to get stronger than the Captain in such a short span of time. Heh, impossible.

Kidd sighed again. He really needed to get out of this boring piece of metal scrap and toward somewhere with lots of powerful opponents. He was getting anxious.

"Captain, is there a problem?" Killer said next to him, sitting on another one of the uncomfortable chairs of the bar, sipping his drink.

"How much more time do we have to stay here?"

"A few more days, Captain." He replied with a bored voice, having answered this same question for at least a few hundred times within their stay here. "We can turn on the television; there might be some interesting news."

His captain sighed again as he made a positive hand movement. In the first days, those inventions and tools of this island were interesting but they wore out now. And the news in that television thing was always boring.

Kidd glanced to the screen before turning his eyes back to his drink. It was about the execution of the second division head of the Whitebeard Pirates again. Everybody was talking about it for days and Kidd wished for it to happen so they would stop fussing about it and make news about some other subject. Of course, if Whitebeard were to make a move to save his crewmate, that would be interesting to watch. Unfortunately, for now there were no moves from the legendary pirate and all the reporters do was to ponder what he will do.

He listened half-heatedly to the news reporter as he was telling about the transportation of Portgas D. Ace from Impel Down to Marine headquarters. Making use of his time, he inspected his nails; they had grown longer and he needed to paint them again. If they were to stay in this boring island for a few more days, he might actually have time to do stuff like that.

He raised his eyes to the screen just in time to see the reporter receive some last minute upgrade on news. Kidd watched his reaction to the news with an amused expression; these people were so used to their uneventful and boring life that the smallest sign of change were making them panicked and anxious. They were so comfortable with the protection of the World Government that they were covering from a miniature discomfort, like arrival of pirates. This island was a typical example. Kidd wondered again how such an island was included in the New World.

He waited for the reporter to catch his breath from the heavy (!) impact of the news.

"After the ship carrying Portgas D. Ace; it is reported that another ship had left Impel Down. It was sighted that the intruders were in that ship, along with the prisoners they freed, including two former-Shichibukai –"

Taking a sip from his drink, Kidd congratulated the fool who intruded the legendary prison of the World Government for his great show of idiocy. Really, a person had to be a stupid, totally out-of-his-mind dim-wit to even think of doing such a thing.

"And the intruders were reported to be Buggy the Clown and Monkey D. Luffy!!"

Consequently Kidd choked on his drink. What the –?

It took him enough time to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand to regain the ability to think again. Okay, now that he thought about it, the person didn't have to be an idiot to do such a thing. A lunatic could do the job as well and someone who would punch a World Noble hardly any steps away from the capital of World Government was the right man choice.

A few breaths later, Kidd noticed the ruin of his assumptions. Straw Hat wasn't in some kind of a boring island with no opponents; he was fighting with the strongest guards of the world. The Captain's eyes shined just from the idea of those fights.

Glaring at the crumpled metal glass in his hand, Kidd directed his look to his first-mate.

"Get me out of this place!" he growled. He needed to fight with tons of strong opponents if he dreamed to reach Straw Hat's level.

Really...Impel Down. Was that guy kidding?


	3. Instant Healing

Author's Note: I had so much fun writing this! The idea came when I watched the fight scene at the Sabaody Archipelago where Chopper gives Brook a glass of milk when he got injured. I laughed so much then!

Hope you like it too!

Instant Healing

The 'normal' people of the Straw Hat crew decided that only in this issue, their captain was the less weird one. It was such an unexpected conclusion that they stopped and looked at each other before continuing their train of thought.

Let's rewind the tape a little and see what the deal really was.

First of all, the 'normal' people of the Straw Hat crew – as they called themselves – consisted of Nami, Usopp and Sanji. When they met at the aquarium room, Robin happened to be there and Sanji refused to let his Robin-cwaaan be one of the 'abnormal' people so she was included as well. As for Chopper, although all 'normal' Straw Hats insisted that a talking reindeer was _not_ normal at all so he definitely was not included, since he was the doctor of the ship and their discussion subject was about healing properties, he was allowed to join.

When they said they were going to discuss healing properties, it didn't mean topics like the wounds of Zoro, his gears' stress on Luffy's body, the skull cracks of Brook or whether the metals of Franky was stainless steel or not. Of course not, that would be so ordinary and Chopper was good enough of a doctor that the rest of the crew didn't bother to discuss stuff like that. Really, even if they call themselves 'normal', please remember the fact that they are Straw Hats.

By the way, the 'abnormal' part of the crew was stated as well. That part consisted of Luffy, Zoro, Franky and Brook.

I'm sure you noticed that the 'abnormal' part of the crew was not the same with the monstrous trio – Luffy, Zoro and Sanji – or Devil Fruit-eaters – Luffy, Chopper, Robin and Brook – or non-human part of the crew – Chopper, Franky and Brook. No, no, this was a totally new categorization of the crew; this was the 'abnormal' Straw Hats, in other words the Straw Hats with abnormal healing abilities.

They weren't sure who noticed these properties first or how that person did it but somehow all the 'normal' Straw Hats learned it by this time. It didn't mean that the 'abnormal's were trying to hide it, no not at all, but like all not normal things, it took time for 'normal's to notice that it was not normal. Also the characters with these abnormal traits were not totally normal in other fields as well so it was extra hard to pick up these abnormalities among the sea of abnormalities.

Besides even if this trait was abnormal, it wasn't equivalent with useless. On the contrary, Nami used it several times in the past, as well as Chopper who found this trait very, very useful in healing his stubborn nakama. Sanji, being the cook, knew it as well and sometimes used the knowledge to help the 'abnormal's if they were in a dire situation. Usopp knew it but didn't particularly used in before, as well as Robin.

'Normal's let Chopper give a name to this abnormality because it was a healing property and Chopper was the doctor of the ship. The name was nice and suited the phenomenon really good. The rest of the 'normal's liked it too.

So, it was decided that the name of this abnormal attribute of the four Straw Hats would be Instant Healing.

This phenomenon was seen only in four people in the world – as far as the Straw Hats concerned – and it was a mysterious connection between a special food – drinks included – and the healing rate of a person. When the pre-chosen particular food was consumed, regardless of the condition the person's body was in, it was instantaneously healed. In other terms, it was a sudden jump on the person's healing rate.

Chopper had studied this interesting happening for a long time and reached to a semi-logical explanation on the link between the food and the person. Actually not one but two different explanations because one didn't cover all the 'abnormal' Straw Hats.

In half of the subjects, the particular food was believed to be the source of what the body was made of. Although it was against the doctor-patient policy to give the patients' names, Chopper made an exception since they were in a ship of nine people and all the 'normal's noticed it already.

Luffy with his choice food meat and Brook with his choice drink milk were in this category. When examined carefully, it could easily be noticed that these two individuals believed that their body was made of their choice food. For instance, Luffy believed that his body was meat – which was partially true – and when he fought, he lost meat – which was false, thankfully – and if he ate more meat, he would replace the lost ones – which happened to be true, as a result of Instant Healing. It was the same logic with Brook as well: He believed that his body was bones – which was true – and bones were consisted of calcium – and lots of other elements, Chopper answered but yeah, calcium was a large part – and milk had calcium – which Sanji gave a similar answer to Chopper's – and he lost calcium when he fought – which was yet an unexplained issue but Chopper really doubted it – so if he drank milk after a fight, he would gain his lost calcium – again Instant Healing.

In the other half of the subjects, the particular food was believed to be the fuel of the body.

Zoro with his choice drink sake and Franky with his choice drink cola were in this category. When examined carefully, it could easily be noticed that these two individuals believed that the source of their bodies' strength and well-being was their choice foods – or drinks. The relationship between Franky and cola was outside Chopper's study field – he studied living organisms, mechanics was not his field – so there was the probability that cola could really be Franky's cyber body's fuel. On the other hand, the fact that Franky used to be human and even with an 80% metal body, the remaining 20% was human, reduced this probability.

As for Zoro, the weirdest subject of this study, Chopper found it hard to believe that after a bloody fight, drinking sake would heal him and make him able to fight some more bloody battles. He claimed that instead of healing, sake actually numbed him to his pain thus made him able to fight some more; however the fact that he was able fight those battles with intense concentration and the subject's high tolerance to alcohol kind of refuted his theory. The research on this subject still continued under the careful eye of Cotton Candy Lover Chopper.

It was at this point that the 'normal's noticed that their always-odd captain was the lesser of the weirdoes. It was a shocking outcome. They examined the behaviours of all the 'abnormal's and studied their Instant Healing abilities again for this sake but no, their captain was still not the number one oddball.

In that instant, the 'normal' Straw Hats decided that they wouldn't be able to explain a phenomenon that wasn't at its maximum _even_ at their captain so they wished good luck to their doctor and repeated their captain's words of wisdom.

"It is a mystery thing!"


	4. Beloved Hero's Lovely Family

Author's Note: First, thank you for the reviews! I love them all!

While I was writing this, I noticed a trend; my even numbered one-shots were always about the frustration of someone about the Straw Hat crew or Luffy, personally. First it was Kidd's disturbance for Straw Hat and now Sengoku's annoyance to the Monkey family in general. Actually I had started writing about Smoker; it was his irritation towards the family. Maybe I would put it as the sixth chapter, to continue the trend :))

Two people wanted a Garp one-shot but I guess this doesn't count, right? Anyway, enjoy it! I love making fun of marines XD

Beloved Hero's Lovely Family

Sengoku loved his job. He loved the privileges of being the highest marine officer; he loved to know all the happenings around the world and actually having the power to affect them.

He used to love his job wholeheartedly, but that was 22 years ago, and ended with the death of a certain Pirate King. The execution was his decision – along with World Government leaders – and he didn't regret it. Though sometimes he came truly close to it. Really, if they were to leave him alone, in any case, Roger would have died from his illness; however they went all their way to capture and execute him to show the entire world the fate of pirates. How did it end? Roger gave a small speech and now they have not a few strong pirates but an era full of them in their hands.

In his personal opinion, capture of Roger created another headache with it; the marine hero Garp the Fist. Before being a hero, Garp was just a high-ranked marine officer that knew the seas well and had exceptionally powerful arms. Also somehow – Sengoku wasn't sure how it happened and actually didn't want to know – he was good friends with the notorious pirates of the time. All and all, he was a good marine and a powerful fighter but that was it. He was loyal and strong.

The problem was that the only person in his whole family who was loyal to marines was Garp himself. That wouldn't be a problem if he would be the only influential and strong person in his family, but no, by the blessing of some marine-hating goddess, the _whole_ Monkey family was annoyingly significant leaders, in their own fields.

Now, after 22 years of being a hero, Sengoku wondered whether he would be allowed to hurt the laughing man in front of him. He didn't want to kill him or anything; a good punch to shut his mouth up would be enough for him. Really, he just wanted the emotional satisfaction and some silence.

He considered whether he could convince the World Government leaders to write a law that would forbid the Monkey family to enlarge, at least forbid them to have any male child. On the other hand, there were already three generations and Sengoku doubted he would live to see the forth generation. He didn't care about the headaches of the future Marine officers.

At first, he didn't understand the significance of the small pirate crew coming from East Blue. The name Monkey D. Luffy indicated his relationship with the marine hero but Sengoku only laughed at Garp's frustration that he wasn't able make his grandson a marine. A few weeks later, this grandson of his defeated a Shichibukai. As the admirals were discussing the dangers of this brat, Sengoku just raised his eyebrow at the proud undertones of the angry facade on Garp's face.

When Sengoku thought of that day, he always said that they should have given a higher bounty to the Straw Hat pirate. Then maybe – just maybe – he wouldn't be able to survive on Grand Line. Why did he want it? Because the shame of the defeat of a Shichibukai by a rookie was the least the brat brought upon them.

Hardly a month passed before the news of this brat's invasion to Ennies Lobby reached to his ears. Not just an ordinary invasion – which also was a first –, the commander of CP9 called a Buster Call because nobody could stop the pirates and he was afraid that the important captive would be taken by them. Well, at first they thought the Buster Call request was from Admiral Aokiji but after a while the truth was revealed. However it was too late by then, the judicial island was no more than a burning land and the Straw Hat pirates got one of the most dangerous people of the world.

As he listened to the reports with gritting teeth and about-to-burst temper, their beloved marine hero was laughing his ass off next to him. In his fury, Sengoku sent him to capture his grandson; only to receive a report back saying he won't capture him because he is his grandson. Thankfully his officers managed to understand his order to send Aokiji to Water 7 in between his cursing and screaming, but somehow Blue Pheasant turned out unable to capture them as well. He didn't understand why his high-ranking officials refused to capture a small crew of pirates. Albeit all the crew had bounties but they were nothing against an admiral.

It wasn't enough. No, a member of the Monkey family didn't know where to stop. That brat defeated another Shichibukai, wasn't captured by another Shichibukai, hurt a World Noble and wasn't captured by another marine admiral. At this point, Sengoku was ready to tear his hair if he were to receive another word about that brat.

As he was having panic attacks at the news of Straw Hat's actions, he heard that Dragon – the most-wanted man of the world, the Revolutionary Dragon who they couldn't find the identity of – was the son of none other than their beloved marine hero. And look at the chance; he actually met his son after his son sent off _his _son to Grand Line, by stopping a Marine Captain, no less.

Sengoku nearly had a heart attack. Garp only laughed.

Today started as a peaceful day but he couldn't help but glance to Garp, who was sitting on a chair and drinking tea, at every few minutes. Whenever he came to his office, Sengoku received some bad news, always somehow related to their hero's family.

Two hours of normal paperwork and small talk with Garp managed to calm him down. Maybe he broke the bad luck chain.

In that instant, there was a knock on the door. Sengoku crossed his fingers before calling "Come in."

A soldier brought two thick reports.

One of them was about the revolutionaries' attack to Tequila Wolf, a success on the revolutionaries' side, led by none other than Monkey D. Dragon.

The other was about the invasion of Impel Down, the only successful one in its history, led by none other than Monkey D. Luffy.

With shaking hands, Sengoku put the reports back to his desk and turned to Monkey D. Garp.

"What?" The vice-admiral said as he looked suspiciously to the other marine's crazy look.

"What the hell is wrong with your family!?!"

His only reply was Garp's laugh as if he was having the best time of his life.


	5. That Day

Warning: This one-shot story contains spoilers for the latest Whitebeard War arc chapters.

Author's Note: First and foremost, thank you for the reviews! I loved them!

A few days ago, thanks to an irritating virus, I had to format my computer. I lost all my data! It included two halfway and two finished chapters for Cranberry Punch. *sigh* They were about Franky and Robin, I wonder if I would write them again…I highly doubt that…

Anyway, here is a cutish, kind of awkward and still somewhat funny one-shot. Before reading, let me remind you that here, Ace is ten years old. Enjoy it!

That Day

That day, when Dadan told Garp was coming, Ace wasn't a happy fellow. Of course he was grateful and somewhat in debt to the old man for finding him a home and taking care of him, yet Ace wasn't fond of his I'm-doing-these-so-you-can-be-a-strong-marine attitude. He also thought that they were useless; thank you very much, but Ace knew who his father was.

Ace's not-happy mood turned not-happy-at-all when Dadan informed him that he wasn't allowed to go to town or anywhere else like he did at Garp's last visit. Too bad, he didn't feel like waiting obediently for his next impossibly dangerous and unreasonable training mission.

But then Dadan had some kind of an Ace-sensor or eyes on his back because the moment he made a move to get out of the house, his dinner decided to wave him goodbye.

So eventually, Ace sat on a tree branch, waiting dutifully for the old man and consequently his next to-become-a-strong-marine training session. While making a really sour face, by the way.

It was afternoon when he heard voice of the old man – as always, he came at the exact time for lunch. His voice surprised Ace because being the crazy the old man he was, still Garp didn't talk to himself. Ace heard him mumble a few times before but he never talked in such a loud voice. Logically there wasn't even the need to talk aloud to himself but Ace had accepted the weird habit of adults; he saw Dadan doing it a few times too.

Anyway, talking loud or not, it didn't make Ace's mood any lighter. Actually the only thing that could brighten his mood would be if Garp were to turn back and decide not to visit him. Though he knew it was only wistful thinking, Ace already saw the shadow of the old man coming to their house.

Well…actually there were two shadows.

Deciding that dinner be damned, he was getting out of here before that second guy found him and began training him as well, Ace stopped short when the second shadow belonged to a short boy with a huge straw hat.

In an unbalanced position on the tree branch, ready to sprint if any danger approached, Ace wondered if Garp was bringing another orphan to Dadan, who definitely wouldn't be in his happiest state when he heard the news.

Maybe he recently became an orphan, he wondered. The boy looked around seven years old; Ace came here when he was newly-born. Was this boy related to a criminal as well? He didn't understand what was the deal with Garp and him saving the children of world-wide criminals.

At a second look, Garp was somewhat different around the boy, a little gentler, smiling somewhat more and was his punches softer? Though they didn't look softer, maybe the boy was used to them? Whatever, for all Ace knew, the boy could be a hard-headed weirdo.

The old man said "You'll be living with these people, so get along nicely now!" before punching the boy's head again, resulting him to make an odd balancing-looking movement. Then leaving the two children at the yard, he went inside to talk to Dadan, or maybe just to look at the lunch menu.

Ace looked at the boy with a less sour face; maybe Garp came here only to bring this boy and would forget to send Ace to some new training. Still, he wasn't hopeful so he just stared at the boy, wasn't disturbed by awkwardness, also wasn't willing to start the conversation.

"Hi!" the boy chirped suddenly, grinning at him.

"Hi." He replied back.

"I am Monkey D. Luffy. Nice to meet you!"

"I'm Ace." That grin was so large and along with that oversized straw hat, this Luffy kid looked odd. Wait a minute…Monkey?

"You're related to Garp?!"

"He is my grandpa." He didn't look so enthusiastic about the fact and Ace couldn't really blame him. "You don't have a surname?"

"Why do you care?" Ace was instantaneously defensive.

"But I told you my full name." He whined.

"My name is just Ace." His mood made a definite turn to sour.

"Awww...C'moon!!"

"It is just Ace!!"

"That is unfair!" Luffy said in a loud voice – which Ace suspected was his daily volume. "How am I supposed to get along with them…" he mumbled halfheartedly and Ace wondered the same thing. Luffy was odd, annoying and loud. Garp could gladly take his grandson with him when he left.

"Okay! I decided to learn your surname!" The boy suddenly exclaimed, making Ace jump slightly. Apparently he got out of his disappointment real quick.

"Why do you care anyway?!" He shouted back.

"You act as if it is a secret."

"It is."

Instinctively Ace knew that the grin of Luffy's meant trouble. For whom, he wasn't sure but in a very deep subconscious level, Ace also knew that whatever trouble he caused, it would include Ace and his dinner would wave him goodbye again, truly this time.

Steeling himself against Luffy's whining, pouting and the future hunger, Ace decided to stand his ground on this issue, only to run in a panicked scurry after him when the boy went to the direction of the kitchen.

It was cheating, including the adults!!

In the end, Ace ended up saying his surname to Luffy. His only hope was demolished when Luffy replied excitedly.

"Whooa!! You're Pirate King's son!"

"Never saw that useless man in my life…" he grumbled, Luffy's excitement and apparent admiration to the dead man irritating him more with each minute. "And don't shout it, it is a secret!"

What was wrong with the boy's face by the way, holding such a large grin should hurt after a while. On that thought, there was something unnatural about his grin as well…was it normal for it to be that large?

"Oh! We have the same middle names, –"

"They are just initials…" Did he just notice? That was slow…

"–so, we are brothers!"

Silence.

"We have different surnames!!!"

By the end of that day, Ace's mood wasn't so sour anymore but instead angry and irritated. He managed to eat his dinner and Garp really forgot to send him to a new scary training. He washed the dishes after the meal – as it was his job – and went outside to eat his watermelon slice while watching the stars.

On the roof, he sat slightly right of his usual seat and waited for Luffy to climb before giving the grinning boy his watermelon slice. That day, as he was eating his fruit, he watched the stars less, instead talked and laughed with Luffy, secretly enjoying the company of another child at the house.

In the end, that day, Ace became an older brother.


	6. The Buzz of Doom

Author's Note: I wanted to write many things here but at this hour of the night, I can't remember any of them. I'm tired and sleepy so if there are any mistakes in the story, forgive me...I wanted to put a new chapter because tomorrow – well, a few hours later, today – I am going to vacation. I wouldn't be able to write anything there so I wanted to put this longer-than-usual one-shot. I have prepared another short story, I hope to put in online if I could find internet at the vacation.

As for the story, it is more like my musings on the issue rather than a story with a plot and so on. Hope you like it...Damn it! I hate mosquitoes; I currently have one in my room...

The Buzz of Doom

Franky was in his weapon development room. Today, contrary to the name of the room, he wasn't developing any weapons in it. Actually the only reason he came here was because it was below the deck. It wasn't easy to reach here so any walking or flying creature shouldn't be able to reach to this room without difficulty.

He sighed, relieved. Sitting on his chair, he closed his eyes and listened to the silence of the room – as much as it can be in a ship such as Thousand Sunny.

It took Franky a few minutes to finally relax. He was taking a deep breath, with a smile on his face when he heard it.

The buzzing.

Damn it! This was the last straw; he was going to build a shield to protect the ship! A shield that only air was allowed to enter!!

What was the buzz about, you wonder? Well, actually...

It had all started when they entered the stable climate of a summer island. Their last stop had been a spring island in the middle of winter so to say that they had been drenched to bone would be an underestimation – and not only in Brook's case. Wet, cold and irritated, Nami's news of a summer island was a celebration issue in the crew.

Nami, being the expert navigator, was right. After a few days of unpredictable Grand Line weather, which always rained much to their luck, they came to the very-welcome burning sun and cloudless sky that indicated the summer island.

As her crew was happily drying around, Nami looked at sky thoughtfully. Yes, the weather suggested a summer island but where was the dry air? Humidity was still very high. Though after a while she dismissed the issue – they were on the sea anyway, of course humidity would be high – and began sunbathing happily.

One important factor Nami ignored was that the only summer island she had been was Arabasta's island, a.k.a. Sandy Island. As its name suggested, it was full of deserts under a torching sun. On the other hand, the island they were going to reach was full of jungles.

And jungles meant insects. Actually, jungles meant _big_ insects.

Straw Hats leaned this fact very quickly.

The residents of the jungle apparently decided to send a welcome party to the ship because within the hour they entered the stable climate, those small, multi-foot creatures began to be seen on Thousand Sunny.

No body minded them at the beginning; they had been in Little Garden so some insects were no big deal for a brave and fearless crew such as Straw Hats.

Of course when we said 'big insects', it wasn't _very_ literally. They were big but not human-sized or anything like that; they were only hand-sized bugs. Don't say that logically there wouldn't be human-sized bugs, we're talking about the One Piece world and such an occurrence would have disturbed the Straw Hats less, being the crew that got used to unnatural stuff and all.

Anyway, in the first few hours, the welcome party was ignored. Only Franky, who stared at them to see if they would damage the precious wood of the ship or not, and Sanji, who wasn't particularly thrilled to see bugs – especially spiders – at his kitchen, paid them any attention.

The welcome party, while welcoming the humans to their island, also wanted to be welcomed by them to their ship so the lack of attention from the humans annoyed them. With a signal to the island, they called the second welcome party. They were so tiny that none of the Straw Hats saw the bugs' evil grins but if they had managed to see it, the crew would have behaved very differently.

Anyway, in a few minutes, the second welcome party arrived to Thousand Sunny. Unlike the first group, they were not to be ignored.

The first one to notice them was Nami. It might have been Robin as well but she didn't voice it so Nami was the first one to announce the arrival of the second welcome group from the jungle. Of course her wording wasn't exactly like that; it was more like "Aiee!! There is something on my arm!"

No, no, the 'something' on Nami's arms wasn't a member of the welcome party; it was their gift to humans. A big, red and scratching swelling.

Of course Sanji was the first one to reach to her side to face the 'thing' that dared to touch dear Nami-san and console her if needed. As it turned out, Nami didn't need any consolation so Sanji called Chopper who identified the swelling on her arm with the speed of an expert doctor.

It was an insect sting. To be more specific, it was a mosquito sting.

As we said, the second group was not to be ignored or denied.

At this point, the welcome party was happy that they received the attention they earned from the humans. The humans, on the other hand, were not exactly happy for the arrival of the welcome party and it turned out that their attention was a bit on the wrong side.

In other words, Straw Hats declared war upon insects.

Too bad the welcome party didn't value the honour of Straw Hats' war declaration. Really, it was only them and the World Government so it was great nobility – not even pirate crews received such a credit – but the flying creatures didn't appreciate it. Though, maybe they didn't understand, the welcome party didn't exactly have a flag Sogeking could burn so probably the war cries of the pirates were not enough of a clue.

Anyway, here it is.

The Straw Hats vs. The Mosquitoes

In this fight chapter, as in all other fights of the Straw Hats, every individual member of the crew was assigned to a villain member who had similar fighting style, abilities and nearly-equal levels of strength.

However, there were some problems with this matching:

One, the number of pirates was nine while the number of mosquitoes was approximately one hundred. So instead of a one-by-one pairing, the fight was in a ten to fifteen-by-one pairing.

Second, the strength of all the mosquitoes were the same and was in ignorable amounts compared to any of the crewmembers. Though, since it wasn't their strength that made them troublesome to Straw Hats, this wasn't an important issue.

After a few minutes, the imperfections with this matching showed itself. The crewmembers couldn't identify the mosquitoes they were supposed to be fighting. They all looked the same.

"Oi! Love-cook! That one was my opponent!"

"What the hell Marimo? It was near the kitchen so it was one of mine!"

"Hey! Luffy, stop sending your enemy to my way!!"

"I keep punching but they fly away!!"

That sentence of Luffy explained the problem very head on. The Straw Hats, who fought against many enemies and beat them all, was used to fight with human-sized opponents, logically. So their special attacks that could send an enemy flying away didn't work on tiny mosquitoes, which were flying away anyway.

With a huge shock, the Straw Hats noticed that the monstrous trio was useless in this fight. Luffy's punches and Sanji's kicks were so powerful that mosquitoes flew away with the wind of the movement, before the attack could hit them. And Zoro refused to use his valuable swords to kill insects; his argument was that it would be hard to clean afterwards.

Similarly, Franky's attacks didn't work as well. Also he was so anxious anyone would damage the ship that he couldn't concentrate on his fight.

Usopp's attacks, which were generally used to deflect canon balls, hurt marines or blaze stuff in general, burned a bunch of mosquitoes along with the railings. He wasn't allowed to fight anymore – which was a boasting issue for Usopp, the fact that his attacks were powerful than needed.

Chopper's hooves were small so he could only attack one or two mosquitoes at a time; that was, if he was fast enough to catch them. Most of the time he was not.

Nami's thunder attacks were in a similar state with Usopp's so she was disqualified as well.

Brook's swordsmanship, which was effective and fast, was too fast for the mosquitoes so he cut some of them into two or more pieces. But again such actions damaged the ship so accompanied by Franky's curses; he left the fight as well.

The last resort was Robin, who could hit the insects with several arms. It required her to see every one of them and was a bit impossible. Not that impossible was a concept Straw Hats believed or anything close. However, after a while, in which she fought bravely and saved the her crewmembers' honour, her several hands and arms were so full of mosquito stings that out of pity and Chopper's insistence, she left the fight as well, befitting of a hero.

As a result, the Straw Hats did something they had never done in a fight before; they ran away. Each crew member ran to a closed space, hoping mosquitoes didn't invade the rooms of the ship yet.

Of course, by this point, most of the crew members had earned those red, itching swellings on several parts of their body. The only exceptions were Brook, Chopper and Luffy, who the mosquitoes couldn't penetrate through his rubber skin.

Yes, back to the beginning. This was how we found Franky in his weapon development room.

Kind of a sad story, isn't it? In the end, Straw Hats decided to spend all their time in their rooms until the Log Pose was settled and they were ready to leave the island. The unaffected trio could have left the ship to explore the island and get some supplies but that required them to open the room doors to get out. Such an action would have resulted in hundreds of mosquitoes – after the first one, a few more welcome or exploration or what-ever-they-were parties welcomed themselves to Thousand Sunny – entering the rooms, consequently nobody was allowed to leave the closed areas of the ship, even if they had to bodily stop Luffy from the act.

Luffy had declared this was the most boring adventure they had.

Franky had to take tranquilizers from Chopper not to have panic attacks thinking what those hundreds of mosquitoes were doing to the ship.

In a similar state, Sanji decided that the thread of a few hundred mosquitoes flying around freely was comparable to the thread of a starving Luffy in terms of their food supply.

And from that day on, Nami's news of a summer island was never a celebration issue again.


	7. Curse of the Bounty Poster

Warning: This one-shot story contains spoilers for the latest mini stories of Straw Hats.

Author's Note: I had written this one-shot last week but couldn't find any internet to upload it. It was supposed to be a short one after the longer-than-usual previous chapter...

When this idea came to my mind, I was like 'you know, it is not above Oda to torment Sanji like that' so I wanted to write this what-if one-shot. All the facts about the war and other stuff are imaginary, since the story hasn't reached to that point yet.

Here it is! Enjoy it!

Curse of the Bounty Poster

Oh! How he missed these! His kitchen, the aquarium room, the men's quarters and the rest of Thousand Sunny. His nakama, this was the first time he was apart from them for such a long time. Dear Nami-san and Robin-chan, of course.

And his suits. Sanji would have never guessed he could miss his suits but he did, in such an extend that he adoringly watched them a few minutes before wearing one of them.

All in all, Sanji missed being on Thousand Sunny, sailing to new waters with his nakama.

Please put more emphasis on _new_ waters because his last adventure was the definition of his personal hell. If he had thought that the incident with Duval earned the title, his short stay on Kamabakka Kingdom had earned it ten times more.

Anyway, these were past events and Sanji preferred to focus on the present and the future.

Happily, he got out of the kitchen with nine drinks balanced on his arms and went to the direction the most noise was coming. Everybody had gathered on to the lawn deck, laughing; but the moment they noticed Sanji's presence, their laughter ceased. Instead, all of them turned and started to look at him with strange expressions.

Sanji stopped suspiciously before shrugging and continued handing their drinks.

"Sanji-kun," Nami-san's beautiful voice broke the silence and with the sheer ecstasy of hearing her calling his name, Sanji wobbled with heart shaped eyes.

"Yes, Nami-swaan??"

"The new bounty posters are here, want to take a look?"

With a goofy smile and surrounded by pink hearts, he took a bunch of papers from Nami-saan. All the while he ignored the full of anticipation looks of his crewmates that followed his every move.

The first poster was Luffy's. Of course his bounty made another huge jump and was now an even more astonishing number. That was to be expected with his active participation to the world's most important war; and his invasion to Impel Down.

The second poster was Marimo's. Sanji might admit it was a nice increase, if he wanted to be objective.

The third poster was dear Nami-swaaan's. After her return from the weather-something sky island, her control over the weather increased astonishingly, so had her bounty. But considering it was beautiful Nami-san who owned this poster, this increase should have been much more. Much, much more.

The forth poster was Usopp's. There wasn't much change to his bounty but the picture reminded Sanji how thin Usopp used to be. Sanji was going to make sure that his diet would be a strict and effective one.

Then, there was Chopper's poster. Thankfully marines noticed that this reindeer was not Straw Hats' pet but a fighter among them, although it came a bit late.

The next one was Robin-cwaaan's. Her bounty increased as well after her interaction with the revolutionaries. Hah, such a large number suited lovely Robin-chan.

And, Franky's. There wasn't much change since he joined the war at the very last minute. But the fact that he joined was enough to increase the number.

Brook's. Now his picture was of a skeleton's instead of a human's and the number was suitable for a Straw Hat.

Finally! His poster! Sanji wondered why his was at the end of the bunch, and why everybody was still watching him ea...ger...ly...?

Whaaaa – ?

No, no no no no no no, of course not. Ha ha ha, someone must be kidding. He checked the name, then again and again. Black Leg Sanji. This was his name, right? No, no, no, NOOOO!!!!

Just what that marine - ? What in the name of - ? That bastard - ! Fucking - ! Damn! Those shi -! Mo - ! Arrrgh!!!

Choking on his cigarette, he fell on his knees and coughed a good, full minute. Wiping the tears on his eyes, he looked at the picture again.

Nope, it was still there!

Damn it! He couldn't even form any coherent insults!!

Damn it to the endless hells!! It was true, if Duval was his hell, that Kama Kingdom was his hell ten feet under the ground!

Instead of Duval, the picture on his poster was a blond weirdo with a curly wig and thick make-up. He could see the collar of the frilly dress and Sanji personally knew that the oddity on the picture was wearing high-heel sandals.

Nooo! They should have left him die there instead of spreading this picture to the whole world.

All his strength leaving his body, mind only capable of repeating 'noo' over and over again, Sanji slumped to the lawn deck.

Pointedly ignoring the wholehearted and hysterical laughing of his nakama around him.

With one eye, he glanced to the poster again. The bounty number was good but nooo, he refused to have such a poster!!!

He was going to call the Marine Headquarters and request his old picture. At least that way he was just the laughingstock of the ladies of the world, now the ladies wouldn't even glance to his direction, thinking he was a...a...Damn it!

Sanji couldn't find any other explanation: his poster was cursed.

Damn it! He could hear the laughter of the chefs in Baratie...


	8. Chasing their Freedoms

Warning: This one-shot story contains spoilers for the latest chapters of the manga.

Author's Note: First of all, thank you for the reviews. I am so happy that you thought like me too, Oda really can do such a thing. It would take tormenting Sanji to a new level, though.

The last chapter of the manga was great! I noticed how I missed Luffy and his entrance was hilarious. To my vast disappointment, there wasn't a new chapter this week, but well, it gave me time to write my one-shot. After Oda confirmed that yes, Garp is a softie towards his family; I couldn't help but write something about him. It turned out different than I expected but I like this one better, less dramatic and slightly funny still.

Here it is! Hope you like it!

Chasing their Freedoms

Sometimes, just sometimes in a rarely fashion, Garp thought whether he had made a mistake while bringing up these children. Maybe he was too strict, or maybe too harsh or too...crazy?

He didn't see any problem with being crazy; of course he was going to be crazy – which was the short version of madly happy; thank you very much, he didn't have mental problems –, he had two grandchildren – one biological, one bonus – and he was looking after them. Well, as much as he could do between his marine businesses, though he tried to compensate for the lost time whenever he visited Dadan and the children.

It didn't even matter that Ace wasn't a biological Monkey member. He shared the traits of D's and although he didn't have the characteristic train of thought of the Monkey family, he could keep up with them. Garp even believed that after spending too much time with Luffy, he had begun to show some of the distinctive Monkey behaviours.

Maybe that was the whole problem, the Monkey traits or D traits or whose ever traits they were that happened to settle too deep bone in his family. Yeah, that must be the problem; the insufferable features of Garp's family that distinguished them from the others.

That must be the only reason. Otherwise, how could _all_ members of his family would turn out the same way?

This didn't mean that no other people in the world had these traits, not at all. Of course there were many people who loved adventures and desired to be free. The problem was the intensity of these traits; apparently the amount found in each member of Garp's family was approximately three-or-more ordinary people's worth.

As if this wasn't enough, his family had the unexplained ability to inspire people and collect followers. Very loyal followers.

Initially, Garp hadn't minded what his family would make of their lives, as long as they were happy and safe. Of course it changed the moment his son suddenly became his enemy and although Garp didn't sympathize or pity his opponents, family was a _whole_ different matter.

As if to add more insult, he said he wanted freedom when he left his father and home island. Garp mused for a long time whether he had been such a strict father that his son felt the need to leave the island so he could finally be free. Thankfully that wasn't the case; it turned out that Dragon wasn't content with only his freedom; he wanted the whole world's freedom.

That was one of the traits of his family, they thought big. Freedom of one person, one island or country wasn't enough; the whole world should be free. Freedom to sail wherever he wanted wasn't enough; he had to be the pirate king, the freest man in the world. Having an adventure at a small island wasn't enough; he had to have the funniest, largest, greatest adventure. Having a crew wasn't enough; he had to have a super crew. Getting to New World and being famous wasn't enough; he had to be with the strongest pirate of the New World. Being a strong marine wasn't enough; he had to capture the pirate king to prove it.

Really, being great wasn't enough for Garp's family; they had to be the greatest. And what's more, they actually had the willpower and strength to reach that level.

So, after the whole fiasco of his son's career choice and knowing his grandsons – it didn't make an ounce of difference that Ace's surname wasn't Monkey; Garp knew he shared these traits – would feel themselves closer to such professions, Garp made extra effort to direct their career choice to somewhere in which he wouldn't have to be their opponent.

It was easier said than done. As he said, it ran in the blood. When their time came to leave the island, Garp wasn't sure whether to be happy that the new generation preferred individual freedom over freedom of countries or not.

So, his grandsons chose to be pirates. Really, was freedom defined only in pirating? Couldn't a merchant or farmer or _marine_ be free as well? When not one but both of them became pirates, Garp began to question the new generation's beliefs; he had chosen to be a marine because it had sounded like freedom to him. On the other hand, every career choice had sounded like freedom comparing to living with his father. Crazy old man.

Anyway, in one way or another, his whole family chose to live their lives, chasing after their freedoms, in career choices that made them Garp's enemies. It was more worrisome than Garp wanted to admit and he wholeheartedly hoped that there wouldn't come one day in which they had to fight against each other.

Well, now that he thought about it, this scenario was worse than fighting against each other. Garp knew his family enough to know that after a good fight which both of the opponents tried their hardest to win, there wouldn't be any deaths or heartbreaks. The better wins, as easy as that. His family was great like that.

So, obviously, the current 'execution of Ace' thing was disturbing him very much. Not only that but he just _knew_ Luffy was the type of person that wouldn't leave his brother alone in such a situation – as much as the said brother protested against it. It brought tears to his eyes that both of his grandsons' lives might end today, in this square and he couldn't do anything against it because his choice of freedom was different than theirs and maybe obeying orders wasn't included in the exact definition of freedom at all. Though it was too late for such thoughts right now, they weren't going to change the fact that he was a marine, Ace and Luffy were pirates and they were sworn enemies.

Hopefully, Dragon wouldn't join the war. Now _that_ would be a nightmare. Garp was really glad that he didn't know Ace was his son's brother – admittedly, it was a freaky situation for a father to be in but that was not a problem for a family as adaptable as Garp's – because Dragon, like his son, wouldn't hesitate a moment to try the impossible to save a family member.

Impossible never stopped any member of Garp's family before.

Well, of course it wasn't going to stop him now as well. He just had to find a way to delay Ace's execution, free him, make sure he safely reached to his captain's ship and return back to chasing his freedom. _And_ he would find a way, as soon as his eyes stop watering – of course he wasn't crying, what do you take Garp the Fist for? In addition, there was no need to.

Sometimes, just sometimes in a rarely fashion, Garp thought whether he had made a mistake while bringing up these children.

Then he gave up on the thought because there wasn't anything he could have done; it was in their blood.


	9. Quotation Marks

Author's Note: I loved this week's chapter, it definitely was worth the wait; However, all through the chapter, it disturbed me that nobody called Luffy with his name. Everybody was calling him "Strawhat" – with quotation marks. So, here is a pointless and short one-shot about Strawhat's complaints about the issue.

Hope you like it!

Quotation Marks

Strawhat wondered, were pirates getting lazier? With the new age, the pirating activities were an all-time maximum and increasing; they were getting stronger, more ambitious and courageous everyday; their accomplishments getting bigger and bigger with every new adventure, it wasn't possible for them to get lazier as well, right?

Then, what was the deal with all these quotation marks?

Was it so hard to call Monkey D. Luffy, a.k.a. Strawhat Luffy, with his own nickname? What was the problem with all these people calling Strawhat's owner "Strawhat"? It was Strawhat's name, damn it, "it" didn't remember allowing any of them to use "it"s name!

Hah, and one would think that marines loved rules and so on. No way man, they didn't even call someone with the nick _they_ gave to him.

Don't get "it" wrong, Strawhat loved "it"s owner and was more than happy that Luffy's nick originated from "it". Yeah, notice the usage of 'originate', meaning it was derived from Strawhat, not equal to "it".

So, repeating again, please call Monkey D. Luffy, "Strawhat Luffy", not "Strawhat".

Did everyone understand or did Strawhat have to repeat again?

It shouldn't be a hard concept, really. Please call people with their names, not other people – or personalized object –'s names. That is the whole point of a name, right? You have to call people with _their_ names, not other people's names...

It was like calling Zoro "Sanji". Not that the relationship between Strawhat and "it"s owner were anything like theirs but still...just because you put quotation marks there doesn't change anything. You still have to use the person's name to call that person.

Hah, Strawhat wished "it" had powerful voice cords like "it"s owner so "it" could shout all these to the stupid people calling "it"s owner "Strawhat".

That was Strawhat's name, damn it!

Okay, calm down. Breathe in, out. Easy, "it"s owner was energetic enough for both of them; there was no need to get aggravated on an issue. Strawhat was bound to "it"s owner through a thin string; "it" had to concentrate on keeping it intact through all these battles.

But "it"s mind couldn't stop reminding "it" this issue. It sounded as if Strawhat was the one doing all these impressive feats and "it" was the famous one, not the captain himself. Sigh, putting quotation marks didn't change anything; it was Strawhat _Luffy_ doing all these things, not his hat.

Really, "it" didn't understand; there weren't such problems with "it"s previous owner. Though Shanks' hair itself was distinctive enough that nobody paid any mind to his strawhat. Was Luffy's appearance too ordinary? Strawhat didn't think so; even when he was seven years old and "it" met with him for the first time, Luffy was a special-looking kid. Maybe it was his grin; Strawhat still loved his owner's grin. It was too large, too cheerful, too simple but still too influential and too contagious.

That wasn't related to the subject, ahem ahem, as "it" was saying, all these people should call "it"s owner with his names, like the way it should be, instead of using Strawhat's name.

And, no, using quotation marks didn't change anything!

Peh!!!


	10. Fate of Pirate Kings

Author's Note: Okay, after a long time without updates, I began to feel guilty as I get emails notifying that some people added this story to their alerts, favourites etc. First of all, thank you! I'm glad you guys like these one-shots.

When I was thinking a subject to write about – the last few manga chapters didn't give much inspiration, though the latest one looks good. I hope this 'haki' thing will be explained further – I noticed this possibility. (Yeah, Luffy's nearly-suicidal fighting in these chapters bothers me.)

Hope you like it!

Fate of Pirate Kings

Nami had this... curiosity and confusion with a dark undertone of can-it-happen-to-us ever since she heard the true story of Pirate King's death from his first mate. What kind of a joke was it? The strongest man in the world, the man who sailed all waters, who fought numerous battles and survived them all died because of an illness? An incurable, unexplainable illness at that?

Okay, literally, he didn't die from the illness but executed. Still, he was going to die from it if he weren't got caught and executed. And he got caught because he was ill and knew he was going to die. Then again, he wouldn't –

Anyway! The question remained the same, how could such a strong man be overtaken by an illness?

Of course it might have started as something like a cold or an exotic and extinct bug biting you because you were exploring an ancient forest with your skin showing. Nami had evidence that such actions can lead to nearly-incurable diseases. Maybe the Pirate King didn't have a doctor that knew the cure. Nami highly doubted it.

On the other hand, she shouldn't doubt it because Gol. D. Roger died from a disease and if his doctor knew the cure, he would have cured his captain. Then again, one would assume that the doctor of Pirate King's ship would know the cure to all illnesses. Except incurable ones, of course. And that was what happened to the Pirate King. But if his doctor would have been a competent one, he would have known the cure –

Whatever, Nami hissed. Her mind kept wandering in circles today! Ultimately, Nami didn't think the problem was with the doctor. She believed the problem was with the illness.

Well, of course there was a problem with the illness! Two, to be precise. It was incurable(one) and unexplainable(two). The fact that it was an illness itself was a problem! No, she wasn't talking about those; there was something very wrong about why, out of all people, it was the Pirate King that got this illness. It wasn't like there were tons of incurable diseases around for people to have – as far as she was concerned – and while one might argue that for someone as adventurous as the King of the Pirates, it would have been easy to find one of them, Nami didn't think a man as strong as him would get ill so easily. It was similar to how Nami got ill from a bug bite in Little Garden while Luffy didn't get bitten or caught anything although he was wearing shorts and a sleeve-less vest.

Nami took a deep breath and released it with irritation. The point she was trying to reach was that she believed the Pirate King himself created the illness.

No, no, of course he wasn't some sadistic or masochistic guy – as far as she knew from the legends – and he wasn't a scientist as well. Nami was fairly certain that he didn't have scientists and laboratories to create diseases in his ship as well. That wasn't what she meant; she meant that his body got ill because he pushed it too far beyond the limits.

How she could sound so sure? Because she had a Pirate King-wannabe as a captain and watched how he ignored all physical limits of his body in a battle and fought with it as if he was using a weapon that can be repaired. Or if broken, he could buy a new one.

Wasn't this the definition of Gear Second and Third? His crew was always astonished at their captain's determination, stubbornness and how he never gave up; however after they leaned the systematic behind his gears, their fascination slowly but surely turned to horror. Especially after Chopper explained how Luffy's actions shortened his lifespan considerably, hiding the cold fact under loads of medical terms.

They all tried to warn Luffy against it, who, much to their shock, knew the effects of his gears. As expected, whatever they said didn't stop Luffy from using them in fights.

It was a sore spot for the Straw Hats but they turned a blind eye to it; they were going to ignore the fact until it became a critical issue. It was how they were and would have continued that way until Nami saw another aspect in the story of Gol. D. Roger.

Filled with dread, she thought about her captain. What if Pirate King got ill because he pushed his body too far and in the end, his body gave in? Would it happen to Luffy as well?

Was it the fate of Pirate Kings?

One thing was for sure, Nami didn't like this at all.

Possible ways to prevent this fate? Stop Luffy from using his gears... impossible. Then, get strong enough that Luffy doesn't have to use his gears often.

Yeah, that was what Nami was doing right now. In some strange sky island that studied weather, Nami was using her opportunity to get stronger.

She was sure her crewmates were doing the same.

There was no question that they were going to meet and sail the waters together again. There were also minimal questions that their captain was going to be the Pirate King. They were working hard so that Straw Hat Pirates, the future Pirate King's crew, would stay together longer.

She sighed. She hoped Luffy – wherever he was – wasn't overexerting his body too much.


End file.
